Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) Junior Achievement (JA) Discovery Center is a finalist in International Data Corporation (IDC) Government Insights' seventh annual Smart Cities of North America Awards (SCNAA). The JA Discovery Center is competing against entries from Cal Poly Pomona and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the category of Education, e.g., Smart Campus, Smart Classrooms, Virtual Offerings, Online and Remote Services. The awards were designed to recognize North American municipalities' progress in executing Smart Cities projects and provide a forum for sharing best practices to help accelerate Smart City development in the region.

     SCNAA finalists, which include cities, states, counties, and universities, illustrate best practice examples of how forward-thinking municipalities and regional governments are effectively leveraging technology and innovation to offer new services and economic opportunities and to meet the needs and expectations of residents, visitors, and businesses.

     As a next step in the nomination process, IDC invites the public to vote on the named finalists at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SCNAA24. Voting will be open through Friday, March 8. Winners will be announced on March 27 and honored at Smart Cities Connect, held May 7-10 in Raleigh, N.C. To learn more about the event, visit https://spring.smartcitiesconnect.org.

     IDC Government Insights assists government policy, program, and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them, in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services.